


Fresh Start

by pkmntrainer_alex



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Bad Parenting, Children, Divorce, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Other, Post-Divorce, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:01:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pkmntrainer_alex/pseuds/pkmntrainer_alex
Summary: Modern AU - Sora divorces Judge and tries to juggle being a mother with rediscovering who she is.
Comments: 52
Kudos: 166





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> \- (lol what is having too many writing projects)  
> \- I tried to ask my parents what their divorce proceedings were like and they got touchy and didn't give me full answers. Thus, the prologue is a combination of what I researched (American divorce) and what I remembered from my parent's divorce  
> \- The bad parenting tag 500% refers to Judge not Sora

“Does either party object to these divorce proceedings?”

“No.”

“No, Your Honor.”

On the small wooden bench not even two feet behind her, Sora heard someone sneeze, and some small shuffling. They hadn’t been in the cramped room very long, but the children had behaved so far. _So far_. 

The judge glanced over the paper, her glasses sliding to the tip of her nose. Her dark hair was greyed at the roots, visible along the frame of her face and by her ears. _“I was so sure my hair would be that color by the time we reached this step,”_ Sora sighed to herself, absently touching at her own golden hair, held back with a thin pink headband. Every step of the divorce had been a fight, aging her in leaps and bounds.

“And you are both okay with the custody arrangements concerning…” The judge squints at the paper, before glancing back up at Sora and the man who was moments away from being her ex-husband. Her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. “Ah, Reiju, Ichiji -”

“You don’t have to name off all of them, but yes,” the voice beside Sora angrily interjects. His voice booms in the confined space of the room, intimidating with its force. There’s more shuffling behind Sora - frightened stiffening. She hates how her children have been trained to react to their father’s anger. “I will take them every other weekend.”

The judge nodded, still looking confused, but said nothing else. _“It’s the names,”_ Sora thought ruefully to herself, a thin smile on her lips. She and her husband had battled over their names. It was one of the few times Sora had emerged victorious. 

“Alimony has been set, I see, and you both appear to be in agreement regarding custody, so…” Two pens were pushed across the desk at them, and Sora snatched her up anxiously, avoiding the other fingertips that nearly brushed hers. “You both need to just sign where indicated…”

Behind them, someone sneezed. “Be _quiet,”_ Sora heard her eldest child and only daughter rebuke one of the boys in a whisper. 

“Mommy.” One of the boys spoke up in his trying-so-hard-to-be-good voice. “I gotta -”

Her husband turned around before she could speak. “You were _all_ told to be quiet. Be quiet!”

Sora finally looked at him, just long enough to give him the dirties look she can as the children make scared squeaks. He is several heads taller than her, and more muscled, with closed-cropped dark blonde hair that had once been long. She’d loved running her fingers through it - she’d loved _him_. 

The judge cleared his throat before either of them could speak. “Please, if we could continue…”

She signed the bottom of the papers, her long letters looping together in a first name she’d carried with her for her entire life, and a last name that no longer felt like hers. Sora had resolved to keep it, for the children’s sake, but it felt like chains. A weight around her ankle, courtesy of the man she no longer loved.

He paused before signing, giving her a hard, sidelong look she did not return.

“Sir…”

“I’ll do it. I’ll give her what she wants.” He signed the papers, his own signature rough and blocky. It had never looked elegant or smooth, for how often she had seen him sign it on papers for his family’s business. The signature was untidy and unrefined. Just like him. All the same, seeing it on the divorce papers felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, like ropes constricting her ribs had been cut. Sora could breathe again. 

The judge coughed as she reviewed the papers, and added her own signature. “I’ve approved this filing. The marriage is now legally dissolved.”


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- just posted and made some quick fixes

Sora looked up at the new house as she turned off the van and stepped into her driveway. It was the first place she'd owned, all on her own, and it made her proud just looking at it. The house was in a nice neighborhood, great for raising children as the realtor told her, with gardens by the front hedges as well as down both sides of the house. It was a four bedroom with a red roof and shutters, complete with a finished basement and a large backyard, sitting at the end of the street. She had finally closed on it a few weeks before the divorce was finalized, and everything she was taking from the old house had been moved in a few days before. Sora counted her blessings she had been able to find such a nice house at all - she had no income of her own outside of the alimony payments. 

Her husband had insisted she not work after they were married. It had felt like a blessing at the beginning, and she thought back grimly on how she’d never once pictured herself as a single mother of five, with an almost ten year gap in her employment history. When everything was good, why would the thought have even crossed her mind? As she turned to open the door to get the boys, she caught sight of her reflection in the window - hair back with a headband, sweater and jeans, and no makeup. If _he_ could see her dressed like this, out in public, he would have a conniption. 

_“The boys can be two to a room until they get older,”_ Sora reminded herself as she slid open the door of the van, with Reiju hopping out and running ahead with the keys. She wished there was a way she could just leave them in their car seats - they had finally fallen asleep, tiny heads lolling on shoulders. With them asleep, trying to unpack would be much easier. They had only just turned three a few months earlier - and Sora had not anticipated just how stressful having four three-year-old boys could be. _“When they’re older, maybe the basement can have extra bedrooms added...maybe…”_

Quietly and gently, Sora unbuckled the car seat closest to her, and scooped her son into her arms. Thankfully, he did not wake up as she hoisted him up against her chest, his little face pressing into the fabric of her sky blue sweater. “Thank god,” Sora murmured, trying to position him in a way that made it easier to carry him. The four of them had hit a growth spurt, and it was hard to carry them like she used to. She longed for the days when she’d carried them all at once, or even two at a time. All she had to do was get him inside, set him on the couch, and repeat that process three more times before they woke up. It was simple...in theory.

“Reiju,” Sora whisper-called for her daughter as she tiptoed away from the van. Step one, make sure she did not immediately wake any of them up. Step two, get the front door open. “Reiju, did you open the front door?”

“No mommy.” Reiju was back at her side in a flash, blue eyes wide and scared. She was clutching the key ring tightly in her hands, and Sora noticed that pigtails she’d tied Reiju’s hair into before they’d left had already mysteriously come undone. Her daughter leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a dramatic whisper. “There are _bees_ by the door.”

Sora looked at the front door. On either side of the walkway, there was lavender in full bloom, bright and cheerful. There were a few fat bees lazily flitting back and forth from plant to plant, enjoying the sunshine of early spring. “Sweetie,” Sora tried to reassure Reiju as calmly as she could, keeping her voice low and soft so as to not wake her son. “They’re just bees. They won’t bother you if you don’t bother them. Just walk past them and go open the front door, please. I need to get your other brothers out of the car.”

“But mommy,” the whine in Reiju’s voice was insistent as she looked nervously over her shoulder at the lavender plants. “I don’t wanna get stung.”

“You’re not going to -” Sora cut herself off with a sigh, shifting her sleeping son onto her hip and extending a free hand to Reiju. “Give me the keys, sweetheart. I’ll open the door, you go sit in the car with your brothers in case they wake up.” She knew that if they woke up before she was back to get them, the whole neighborhood would hear it. Sora didn’t want that to be their introduction to the new neighbors.

Looking relieved, Reiju relinquished the keys to her mother before skipping past, climbing into the van and sitting just inside, the hot pink sequins all over her sneakers catching the light as she left her legs dangling out and over the driveway. Sora walked the rest of the short distance between the driveway and the house without incident, waving away an errant bee that buzzed past as she stepped up onto the porch. The porch was modestly sized, sheltered from rain or sun, and Sora mused over what she could do with it as she unlocked the front door and stepped inside, leaving it open behind her. _“A porch swing would be nice. Or a bench, and then I could decorate it for different holidays.”_ Her husband - no, _ex_ -husband - had not permitted decorations at their other house. He’d thought it was tacky and unbecoming for their status. Sora decided on a bench right then and there, with different decorations for every single holiday. Reiju and the boys would love it.

Inside the house, Sora was relieved to see it wasn’t as chaotic as she had anticipated. Yes, there were boxes everywhere, but the movers had left everything pushed against walls and stacked out of the way as much as possible. She hadn’t thought she’d left with much from their old house - there wasn’t much she’d wanted, truthfully - but there were boxes upon boxes, in the front foyer, down the hallway, and surrounding the couch in the living room. There was only one couch for the time being, a grey one that Sora had barely been able to afford, but it was better than nothing. It nearly blended into the living room itself, with its drab walls - Sora had visualized the room in a bright tangerine color, with framed photos of the kids all over the place, but that was a weekend project for another time. 

Sora carefully slid a few boxes out of the way with her foot, clearing the way to set down her still-sleeping son. “There we go,” she whispered as she knelt down, slowly lowering him onto the cushions. “You just wait here and -”

“Mommy.” Reiju was suddenly at her side again, tugging hard on the edge of her sweater and making the plastic bracelets on her wrists clatter together. “Can I have some juice?”

“I think there are some juice boxes in the cooler, in the car.” Sora stopped short, and stared down at Reiju for a moment. “...Sweetie, aren’t you supposed to be watching your brothers?”

“Oh.” Reiju looked surprised, her blue eyes wide. “I forgot.”

From outside, Sora heard an explosion of crying and screaming, immediate and hysterical, with wails for mommy thrown in. The boys had woken up, alone and stuck in the car. It was going to be a job, trying to calm them down. Quickly, Sora sprang back up to her feet, putting a hand on Reiju’s shoulder. “I need to go get your brothers before the whole neighborhood comes to see what that noise is. _Please_ stay here with Sanji until I’m done, and you can have juice then.”

“But mommy, this is Yonji.”

Sora left her eldest and her youngest in the living room as she sprinted outside, almost tripping as she came flying off the porch, scattering the bees and a few butterflies that had been hanging around. Inside the van was a cacophony of tears and screaming, and Sora hurried to unbuckle all three of them as fast as she could. If they were awake, they could walk - if they could walk, she could get them inside before their new neighbors could start thinking that someone was being murdered. “Shh, shh, mommy’s here.” She pulled the closest one out of his seat - she wasn’t sure which of them was which, with the blonde hair and the red faces and the mouths wide open as they screamed. From his little red sneakers and hair stuck up in more cowlicks than she thought possible, Sora was relatively sure it was Ichiji she was setting down on the driveway. “Wait here, sweetie, shh, it’s okay.”

Before she could turn around, he took one step in the direction of the new house, and promptly fell backwards onto his butt.

“Oh no,” Sora grabbed Niji and Sanji, pulling them into her arms and almost falling over herself as she climbed back out of the van. They were all far too big for her to carry them in such a way, but she needed to just get them inside and distracted with juice and snacks before -

Ichiji began to melt down completely, screaming even louder than his brothers as he sprawled out in the driveway. In her arms, Sanji and Niji increased the volume of their screaming as well, and Sora couldn’t even hear the birds that had been chirping just moments before. For a fleeting moment, she thought back to how things had been until recently - with nannies, with au pairs - and how she had never wanted for help. “ _I could use some help right now.”_

“Looks like you’re having a hell of a time!”

Startled, Sora looked over to see her next-door-neighbor walking over her way. The realtor had told her he was a military man with unpredictable comings and goings, and she had not seen him before then. As he strode over, she could see he was a massive mountain of a man, taller than her ex-husband, tanned and broad-chested, with close-cropped black hair turning grey in his sideburns. Even though it was barely spring, he was dressed for summer already in a tropical shirt, shorts, and flip-flops that slapped against the surface of the driveway as he drew closer. 

“Oh...hello…” Sora struggled to compose herself, trying to figure out how to scoop up all three boys and hurry them inside. She could feel her face flushing in embarrassment as they continued their agonized howling, with Niji grabbing fistfuls of her long hair and Sanji dragging the modest neckline of her sweater further and further down. “I’m so sorry about this, they were sleeping and they woke up and I wasn’t out here and ah, they get so upset when they get woken up like this.” Her words all spilled out in a heap as she gave her neighbor an awkward smile. 

Her neighbor burst out laughing, his eyes crinkling closed as he threw his head back. “Oh, you don’t have to explain yourself to me! Kids have the funniest things that set them off - I’m well acquainted with that.” Still laughing, he knelt down next to Ichiji, who was still splayed out on his back in the driveway, kicking and screaming, tiny fists slamming down over and over. He grinned at Sora. “I’ve got a grandson just about this age, and I’ve got a trick for calming him down right away. May I?”

“Um…” Sora hesitated. Her neighbor seemed to be nice enough, but she wasn’t sure she could trust him just yet. Before she could think a bit about it, Niji grabbed one of the gold hoops she’d put in her ears that morning and yanked. Hard. Sora let out a noise that sounded more like a squawk than words, and she wobbled her head at the neighbor as she tried to coax her earring free. “Yes, please, go ahead.”

“Great! C’mere, tough guy.” The neighbor scooped up Ichiji like it was nothing, holding his tiny body in massive hands that encompassed his full ribcage. Outraged, Ichiji froze for a moment and gawked up at the stranger, who was getting back to his feet. “One, two, three!” As he yelled ‘three,’ he threw Ichiji straight up in the air as though he’d been launched out of a cannon. 

Sora felt her heart stop.

Laughing again, her neighbor looked over at her and flashed a winning smile. “Oh, don’t worry! I do this all the time! I’ve only dropped Ace once or twice.” He laughed even harder as he held his hands up, catching Ichiji perfectly between them after what felt like far too long to Sora. Before she could say anything else, Ichiji was shot back up into the air, even higher than the first time, one of his little red shoes falling off and landing at the neighbor’s feet.

When the neighbor set Ichiji back down, he wasn’t crying or screaming anymore, but he also was not smiling. He stared up at the large man with wide, perfectly round blue eyes before turning and running back to Sora, clutching her around her legs and burying his face into the denim. Niji and Sanji, having watched the whole thing, stared at the neighbor from the security of their mother’s arms, tiny mouths slacked open in shock. Sora thought for a second, trying to remember any time their father had played with any of them in such a way - and came up blank. _“Did he do_ **_anything_ ** _but yell at them?”_

Scooping Ichiji back up (and easily tearing him off of Sora’s legs) and slinging him across his shoulder, the neighbor headed in the direction of the house. “Here, let’s get them inside - I’m sure you have a lot of unpacking to do. Saw the van unloading everything the other day.” He waited by the front door as Sora quickly followed behind with a completely silent Niji and Sanji. “Oh, I don’t think I gave you my name - I’m Garp.”

“I’m Sora. It’s very nice to meet you.” She indicated the boys in her arms one after the other as they stepped inside. “This is Sanji, and this is Niji. The one you’ve got is Ichiji. My oldest - my daughter, Reiju - she’s inside with Yonji. He’s the baby.”

“Did you have all your boys at once? They’re damn near clones of each other.”

“Yes, they’re quadruplets...quite the surprise to their father and I.” She used her head to gesture for him to follow her, and she led him through the foyer into the living room. Reiju was sitting on the couch with Yonji, who was finally awake and laying down with his head in his sister’s lap, thumb jammed into his mouth, shirt pulled up to expose his tummy as Reiju rubbed it. At the sight of Garp, holding their brother, they both sat up and looked up at him.

Reiju pointed at him as he set Ichiji on the couch next to Yonji. “You’re bigger than Daddy!” It was almost accusatory, but there was a sprinkle of excitement in her words that Sora could detect. It was evident Reiju was at least slightly impressed.

Sora set Sanji and Niji on the couch as well, and they both huddled into the corner the farthest from Garp, pushing and shoving each other while looking nervously over their shoulders to make sure neither of them were next to be grabbed and thrown. Her arms and back ached, despite having held them for a relatively short period of time, and she still had a long afternoon of unpacking ahead of her. “Reiju, Yonji, this is, uh…” Sora realized she hadn’t caught his last name, and hesitated.

“I’m Garp! I'm a Marine and I live in that house.” He pointed through the window in the direction of his house, which was visible past the hedges. Reiju and Yonji ignored where he was pointing, staring straight up at him as though he were some mysterious cryptid. Garp squatted down against, reaching out and ruffling their hair as Sora watched, smiling. “You all and your mommy should feel free to come over anytime you need anything.”

Yonji pulled his thumb out of his mouth, making a popping noise. “Why?”

Sora sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. She thought they’d gotten past this. “Yonji, sweetie, we don’t need to ask -”

“Why am I a Marine?” Garp asked, cocking his head to the side. “Or why should you come over if you need anything?”

Yonji thought for a moment, looking pensive. “Yes.”

“Anyway,” Sora hastily cut in before, swiftly leaning over and placing a hand over Yonji’s mouth as she gave Garp a grateful smile. “Thank you, for helping me get them inside. And thank you for the kind offer. I’m worried I might end up doing that more often than you think.”

Garp waved his hand as he turned to leave, laughing again. “Don’t worry about a thing, Miss Sora. I know how kids - especially boys - can be. Welcome to the neighborhood! Maybe when it gets a little warmer you can bring the kids over and they can use my pool. I’ll invite some of my work friends too, they’d love your kids - Sengoku, I don’t know why, but he’s got an endless supply of rice crackers in his -”

“You have a POOL?” Reiju interrupted, looking dazzled. Even at their father’s house, there was no pool, and Reiju loved to go swimming.

“It is rude to interrupt,” Sora quietly scolded Reiju. “Please say you’re sorry.”

“It’s alright, Miss Sora, she’s just excited - and yes, I do have a pool. I’ll be sure to let you all know when I’m opening it up.” He left the living room, still waving at them all. “I’ve got some friends coming over to play cards so I need to go clean up a bit, but please let me know if you need help moving boxes or furniture - or anything.” Before Sora could thank him again, she heard him pulling the front door closed as he left, and she watched him through the window as he cut across the yard back to his house, whistling cheerfully.

Sora sat on the floor in front of the couch, both happy and exhausted even for how early it still was. “He’s a very nice man,” Sora observed, talking more to herself than any of the kids as she slipped her shoes off. “It’s going to be nice, having such a kind man for a neighbor.”

“He’s bigger than daddy!” Reiju observed again, sounding delighted.

“He threw me,” Ichiji pouted.

“Why?” Yonji asked, more insistently than before.

Niji and Sanji said nothing. When Sora turned her head to check on them, she saw they had fallen asleep again, piled on top of each other and crammed tightly into the corner of the couch. Sanji’s back was bent at an angle that Sora could not imagine was comfortable at all, and Niji had somehow managed to pull one of his legs up behind his head as he lay sideways. It was par for the course. Sora had always loved how awkwardly they slept. Their father did not. Even the brief thought of him turned her smile into a frown. _“When they’re with me,”_ Sora resolved, getting back to her feet and stopping to kiss each of them on the head. _“They can sleep in any way they want.”_

*****

Slumped at her kitchen table after nightfall, hours later, all Sora wanted was for them to sleep at all. Her feet ached, her back ached, but most of all, her head ached. In all that time, she had gotten through one whole box - one and maybe half of another. Most of her afternoon had been devoted to stopping the boys from tearing into boxes themselves, or managing to find every single spot in the house that hadn’t been sufficiently childproofed yet. Yonji had locked himself in the bathroom twice, Niji had been caught multiple times trying to stick a found paperclip into an electrical outlet, and both Ichiji and Sanji had hidden themselves under the kitchen sink and remained silent for at least an hour as she tore through the house in a sheer panic as she searched for them, screaming their names. She had not found it quite as funny as them when they burst out at her, giggling, after she had collapsed into a kitchen chair on the verge of tears.

The kitchen was finally quiet, and dark except for the shaded lamp hanging directly above the table. It kept shaking and swinging from all the banging going on upstairs. “They can’t keep it up forever,” Sora assured herself, sipping at her ice water. She hadn’t even started unpacking the kitchen, so she’d rummaged through the van in the dark for one of the boys’ sippy cups and was drinking from it without the lid. Water would do - but what she wanted was wine. “They’ll fall asleep eventually.” 

At the old house, each of the children had their own room - something Sora had chalked up to luxury more than necessity. When children were so young, did they really all need their own rooms? The boys had seemed excited enough to see that they were sharing rooms, with Ichiji and Niji in one room and Sanji and Yonji in the other, everything split evenly down the middle. Sora had declared victory prematurely when they’d gotten ready for bed easily enough around seven, with teeth brushed, pajamas on, and bedtime stories read. Reiju was a little harder than usual, but Sora chalked that up to excitement for a new house - and soon, a new school. By eight, they were all in bed, and Sora made her way back downstairs to finish unpacking.

She had unpacked exactly one box of bathroom towels before she heard thudding and yelling. Ichiji and Niji had been wrestling in their room, each trying to get the other in a headlock before Sora had angrily scolded them both and put them back in bed. Sanji and Yonji had gotten their bedroom window open and had kicked the screen out, and they had been in the process of trying to climb out onto the roof. After a frustrating struggle trying to retrieve the screen, putting it back in place, locking the window, and then moving their beds to the opposite side of the room, Sora had tried to go back downstairs only to hear more yelling from Ichiji and Niji. She had poked her head in their room to tell them to get back in bed, only to have Niji jump onto her back from the dresser that had once held a lamp - now broken and sitting in the garage.

A cursory glance into Reiju’s room had revealed her daughter, fast asleep, pillow tightly held over her head to block all sounds.

By the time she’d gotten them all the boys back in bed, it was almost ten. Sora had barely started digging through her box from earlier before there was more banging. More trips upstairs. Sora pulled the boxes of their belongings out into the hallway to stop them from messing with the contents. Tied rubber bands around the handles of their closets to keep them from getting inside. Locked every window she could find. She had been sorely tempted to lock their doors as a precaution, but the chance of undoing all the progress in potty training was a risk she couldn’t take. “They’ll fall asleep eventually,” Sora repeated, sipping her water, bouncing her as she sat in place, unmoving. “There’s nothing else they can break or get into or hurt themselves with. They’ll fall asleep eventually.”

This had never happened at the house she’d shared with her husband. Or, if it had, Sora had never been told. Her husband had set the children’s rooms in an opposite wing of the house, far from their room. The household staff were responsible for their well-being after dinner, and Sora never heard a peep about misbehavior from anyone in the morning. Nighttime was always a quiet affair, save for one recurring issue she and her ex had not seen eye to eye on how to manage.

Exhausted, Sora mumbled, “I wanna go h -” She stopped short, not letting herself finish her sentence as her hands balled up in fists. _This_ was home now. A cozy home with her children, finally on her own and free. Every new beginning had a rocky start. Hadn’t her marriage started in such a way? It was the same thing all over again. She had survived it once. She would survive it again.

“Mommy.” Reiju, dressed in a bright pink butterfly nightgown, poked her head into the kitchen, looking very tired. Her long blonde hair was sticking out in all kinds of directions, and her eyes were heavily-lidded. 

“Reiju.” Sora smiled weakly at her daughter as she took another sip of water. “Did your brothers wake you up?”

“One of them did.” Reiju slowly looked around, and then cupped her hand around her mouth to whisper towards her mother. “He asked me to come get you because he had an _accident_. I told him to go wait in the bathroom.”

There was that recurrent issue again. At least that was unchanged. Feeling like her limbs were made of lead, Sora got to her feet, walking to her daughter and kissing her on the top of her head. She’d stupidly only set aside one set of sheets per bed, one pair of pajamas per child, and packed the rest. She didn’t know where the laundry detergent was - or if she even had any. “Go back to bed, sweetheart. Thank you for telling me. Mommy will take care of everything.”

And so she would. Sora had resolved to do just that from the moment she’d filed the divorce papers. As she walked up the stairs, slowly hearing the sound of snuffling crying from the bathroom, she wondered if there could’ve been a way to be more prepared.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sora takes the boys on a trip to replace a broken lamp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I told myself I wasn't going to bed tonight until I updated this so please forgive any typos or whatever, I'll give it a more thorough read-through in the morn. Looks okay on first glance though.

_“It was supposed to be a quick trip,”_ Sora thought, frantic as she tore through the maze of furniture store showrooms. Her cart, holding a replacement lamp and other treats for the kids, had been abandoned somewhere in the ‘Workspaces’ section, and she zipped through families, couples, and tired-looking college students. _“A quick trip. Get what I need and get out.”_ Sora had never been to this particular store, ever - but she’d mentioned the broken lamp in passing to Garp, and he had recommended this place.

“I promise, Miss Sora, you’ll love the place. I’m pretty sure they even have a play area where you can drop the boys off.” He’d leaned over the fence, grinning broadly as she set the broken lamp by the mailbox with the rest of the trash. She’d dressed for the day already in sneakers, jeans, and a light blue plaid shirt with a matching headband, and the sun was scarcely up. “And if you get a chance, you need to try their meatballs too. They’re fantastic. I might head that way myself for some of those later...”

So, after seeing Reiju off on the bus, she’d loaded the boys up, taking advantage of them all being too sleepy to start fussing. 20 minutes later, she arrived at the store Garp had told her about, its bright blue, boxy shape easy to spot even from far away. She’d grabbed the biggest cart she could find and sat each of the boys safely inside, giving each of them a small box of apple juice and a baggie of tiny graham cracker snacks. The boys, thankfully, had still been too tired to act up, slumping against each other as their tiny faces pressed into the metal bars of the cart. Sora had made a beeline for the doors before they could realize they weren’t at home. A quick in and out. That was all that was needed.

Sora came skidding into the ‘Dining’ section, gold hair flowing freely as she whipped her head from left to right frantically. The crowd of people had only grown thicker, and there were more than enough children to confuse her. One small child in a red hoodie ended up being a little girl. She spotted a boy in a blue shirt - the wrong shade of blue. She sprinted past chic and modern dining sets, peeking under sensibly square tables and in the various nooks and crannies that seemed to be nestled into every wall. “Ichiji!” Sora whisper-shouted as she looked beneath yet another table. “Niji! Where are you??”

Upon entering the store, Sora found the play area, precisely where Garp had told her it would be. Thankfully, there was no line at the drop-off area decorated to look like a magical forest, and the teenager working behind the counter waved her right over.

“Hello, miss.” He set his arm onto the counter and leaned towards her, brushing his shaggy red hair out of his eyes breezily. Sora gave him a kind smile, appraising him as she stepped up to the counter. He couldn’t have been more than 17, judging from the weak attempt at facial hair, but already on the path to becoming a very handsome young man. She could see a nametag with ‘Shanks’ on it pinned to the front of his striped uniform shirt. “It looks to me like you’re dropping off.”

Inside the cart, the boys turned to look up at the red-haired young man, eyes narrowing in distrust as they scooted to the back of the cart to huddle together. Only Yonji did not seem to care, staring up with round blue eyes as he shoved handful after handful of graham cracker snacks into his mouth. 

Sora nodded, gesturing to the boys. She’d made up her mind on the drive that it wouldn’t be fair to subject any hourly workers to _all four of them_. Two would be left at the play area. Two would come with her. “I certainly am. Just two of them.”

Shanks flashed a smile at the boys, which only Yonji returned. “Only two? Works perfectly. I’d be more than happy to keep an eye on your little brothers for you.” He gave her a wink as he set some paperwork on the counter. 

“Oh, I, well,” Sora felt her cheeks flushing as she let out a laugh. “They’re my sons.”

“Your _sons?”_ Clutching at his chest in a gesture of exaggerated shock, Shanks staggered backwards from the counter. “That can’t be possible. _Can’t_ be.”

Another young man poked his head into the window over the counter. He had long blue hair pulled into a messy ponytail, and his mouth was pulled into a frustrated grimace. His nose looked abnormally flushed red. “Shanks,” he growled, jabbing him hard in the ribs with his elbow. “Stop being an idiot and get them checked in. I’m not going to watch _all these kids by myself_ while you hit on their moms.”

“Stop being a killjoy, Buggy,” Shanks complained, rubbing his side with a overdone sad look on his face. “I’m just trying to help out this lovely young lady with her little brothers -”

“Hurry _up!”_

Quickly dropping his sad act, Shanks laughed loudly, thumping his coworker on the back as he vanished from sight once more. “Ah, just go make them balloon animals or something...I’m sure it’ll be fine. Anyway, which of these handsome little guys are we taking off your hands?”

That had been 45 minutes ago. Dropping off Sanji and Yonji had been easy. Then it had been 45 minutes of weaving through display after display, showroom after showroom, oohing and ahhing over colorful furniture pieces with names she couldn’t pronounce. Then, through the crowd of people, Sora had spotted the perfect lamp in one of the living room displays. Best of all, it wasn’t one that required her to venture into another part of the store. Sora had turned her back for all of ten seconds to pull it off the shelf. 

And in those ten seconds, Ichiji and Niji had vanished from inside the cart.

When Sora returned to find them missing, her heart stopped mid-beat, her ears filled with a muffled roar as her stomach knotted itself into perfect loops. Her first thought was _kidnapped_ , until she realized that their baggies of snacks and juice boxes were missing as well. Sora had pushed her cart along quickly, weaving through the clusters of people as she looked for her two older sons. _“They’re small,”_ Sora tried to calm herself down as she felt herself walking faster and faster, the wheels of the cart making an odd clicking noise against the tile floor. Small three-year-olds that were still trying to figure out how to make their legs work correctly. _“They could not have gotten very far.”_ When she reached the ‘Workspaces’ showroom and had still seen nothing of them, she ditched her cart entirely, tearing off like a madwoman in pursuit of them.

On the verge of tears, and already nearly through the ‘Bedrooms’ showroom, Sora heard a bloodcurdling scream not far ahead from her. All the other shoppers were taken aback, looking around to see where the scream had come from. There was confused murmuring as people looked away from the array of mattresses and bed frames, and Sora took advantage of their temporary confusion to run right past all of them. Random screaming, with two of her sons unaccounted for? There was an uncomfortably high likelihood that they were connected.

“Something bit me!” She heard a woman screaming shrilly. “Something in that toy bin! Something bit me!”

 _Toys._ Sora could’ve slapped herself; she couldn’t believe it hadn’t crossed her mind to run directly to the children’s section of the store. As she passed from one showroom into the other, the store around her burst into colors and loud patterns, with stuffed giraffes, frogs, and elephants, with rainbows and bins of toys. Sora passed right by a pop-up circus tent and a child-sized slide as she ran in the direction the scream had come from. Of _course_ this was where Ichiji and Niji had disappeared to. Ahead, she could see a small crowd had gathered around a large bin of toys set just to the side of the main walkway, all of them looking confused and mumbling to each other. Inside the bin, all Sora could see were massive stuffed sharks, packed together like sardines, with fabric teeth and soft fins. 

“Something bit me!” Standing close to the shark bin was an older-looking woman, dressed in a housecoat and floppy hat. Her face was red from screaming, and she was holding her hand up in the air. Sora could make out a tiny semicircle of teeth on the back of the woman’s hand, and she felt dread slowly slipping over her.

_“Please don’t let it be -”_

“Not _somethin'.”_ To Sora’s horror and embarrassment, she heard Ichiji pipe up in his high-pitched, best-little-boy voice. “It’s my brother.”

“Ichiji!” Sora turned herself sideways to slip through the tightly packed crowd, who now all turned to look at her. Sitting on the ground in front of the shark bin was Ichiji, legs crossed, crumbs all down the front of his little red hoodie. When he saw his mother running at him, he smiled and held his arms up.

“Mommy.”

Sora snatched him off the ground before she’d even stopped running, wrapping her arms tightly around his small body as she forced him against her chest. He squirmed against her as Sora pressed her face into the top of his head, inhaling the scent from his baby shampoo. “Don’t _ever_ disappear on mommy again!” Sora scolded him, cheeks wet as tears rained freely. She felt a tightness around her heart that she hadn't realized was even there rapidly releasing, causing her pulse to vibrate loudly in her ears. “Don’t ever, ever, _ever_ do that again!”

As she turned back around, still clutching Ichiji, Sora spotted something strange at the center of all the stuffed sharks. For a brief moment there was a tiny face poking up between the sharks, looking right at her with blue eyes - _her_ eyes. Then there was a wide smile, a flash of pearly white teeth, and the face was gone again. Sora quickly set Ichiji back down next to the bin, ignoring the stares of all the people around her. “You sit _right here,”_ Sora spoke sternly to Ichiji, who had picked up his juice box and was looking up at her solemnly. “Once I get Niji out of this bin, we are leaving.”

Ichiji’s face brightened. “Are we leaving Sanji and Yonji here?”

“Are these your sons??” The woman in the housecoat rounded on Sora, holding up her injured hand. Up close, Sora could see the bite marks were deep, with bruising already forming around the grooves. “Aren’t you supposed to be _watching_ them??”

Sora’s face flushed with embarrassment. Not once before had this happened - before the divorce, her husband had insisted they never leave the house without a minimum of one nanny per child. “I - I’m sorry,” Sora stammered, stumbling for her words and uncertain of what else she could say. “I just turned away and...and they were gone, I didn’t look away for more than a couple seconds, I swear…”

To her slight relief, she heard a murmur of agreement through the people who were watching.

“Ah, I remember when my boys were little...I would never do it again, but I remember…”

“Boys are such a handful, like little zoo animals, can’t take them anywhere…”

The bitten woman’s face softened slightly, though her mouth remained in a tight line as she turned away. “Well...go on ahead and get him out of there...I’m not sticking my other hand in there until he’s gone.”

“Ah, yes!” Sora cleared her throat, crossing her arms over her chest and putting on the sternest expression she could muster. She leaned over the end of the bin, game face on, and scolded down into it. “Niji Vinsmoke, get out of there immediately.”

A tiny face poked out between two shark faces, showing off tiny, sharp teeth. “I’m not Niji, I’m a shark.”

“He’s a shark,” Sora heard Ichiji agreeing from somewhere by her ankles. 

“You’re in _a lot of trouble,”_ Sora said disapprovingly, furrowing her brow. “And you’re going to be in even _more_ trouble if you don’t get out of there _this instant!”_

A loud, familiar boom of laughter made Sora jump, and she turned around to see a familiar, friendly face walking towards her in the crowd. In the bright lights of the showroom, she couldn’t miss his bright yellow tropical shirt, splashed with flower print, or his wide smile. “Miss Sora! I overheard all the ruckus in the children’s section and it looks like your boys are up to their shenanigans again.” He looked down at Ichiji, who’d gone wide-eyed and frozen in place at the sight of him. “But it looks like you’ve lost the other three! Bwahahaha!”

“Hello, Garp.” Sora gave him a weary smile. The people in the crowd parted at the sight of Garp, towering above most of them, and flanked by two people Sora didn’t recognize. One of them was a man nearly as tall as Garp, with a large black afro, glasses, and a mustache, and the other was a slender older woman - taller than Sora, but shorter than the other two - with a dignified air about her. “And no...two are in the play area, and...I’m trying to get one out of this bin. He’s already bitten one person…”

As if on cue, Niji poked his head out between the sharks toys again. “I’m a SHARK!”

Garp burst out laughing again, doubling over and slapping his knee as Niji disappeared into the depths of the bin once more. “Oh, are you now? Well...I suppose I’m willing to try my hand at being a fisherman…” He approached the bin, chuckling to himself as he cracked his knuckles against his open palms, the joints popping loudly. Sora had a fleeting memory of Garp throwing Ichiji straight up into the air, and she opened her mouth to caution him to _please be careful, he’s just -_

“He’s just a little boy, Garp,” the man with the afro had hung back, but he regarded his friend warily from a few feet away. “There’s no need to go overboard.”

“What are you warning me for? I know what I’m doing, I have grandsons.”

“We know,” both of Garp’s friends chimed in at the same time, their voices flat. Sora glanced anxiously at them, and felt slightly relieved that they did not look worried. 

“Alright then...let’s catch a shark!” Garp’s arm shot deep into the bin of toys, all brawny muscle shoving past stuffed bodies, flippers, and tails. Sora watched, jaw slacked open, as Garp made a triumphant sound and heaved Niji up out of the bin by the collar of his shirt. Niji had managed to grab four of the stuffed sharks - one under each arm, and another in each hand - but his little blue sneakers were missing, as was his own hoodie. His t-shirt had ridden up from Garp pulling on it, exposing a pudgy tummy, and his eyes were wide in surprise. Sora would have laughed, were it not for the crowd of people still watching.

Immediately, Niji began screaming at the top of his lungs, twisting around and gnashing his teeth at Garp, who laughed even harder, tears beginning to leak out of the corners of his eyes. His laughing enraged Niji further, and he tried his hardest to swing his legs at Garp, kicking his feet wildly as he held fast to his stuffed sharks. Groaning, and beginning to feel fully exhausted (despite it not even being noon yet), Sora wordlessly accepted Niji when Garp plopped him into her arms, still screaming, kicking, and biting. “Niji, sweetie,” Sora tried to pull one of the sharks away, and he gripped it even tighter with his stubby fingers. “You have to put the toys back.”

Niji screamed louder, and jerked his head to snap at her hand. Sora just barely managed to pull her fingers away from his sharp little teeth in time, feeling them just barely grazing the knuckle. 

Still laughing, Garp patted her heavily on the shoulder, nearly shoving her into the bin with his force. “Aw, let him keep them. You heard him, he’s a shark - that’s his family, he can’t leave without them. Hell, I’ll pay - my treat, really.” He lowered his voice to a whisper only she could hear. “It’ll make your life a lot easier, trying to hustle him out of here.”

Behind them, Sora heard Garp’s female friend clucking her tongue. “I suppose he does have a soft spot for kids.”

The rest of the shopping trip went as smoothly as Sora could have hoped for. Garp went back to retrieve her cart for her and helped her load up Niji and his new shark family - no easy task, as each one was larger than him. As Garp had suggested, Niji behaved much better with a school of sharks to nestle inside, and stopped trying to bite or kick. Ichiji refused to let Garp pick him up and load him into the cart alongside Niji (likely afraid, Sora suspected, of being launched sky-high again), but seemed to get on well with Garp’s afroed friend, who kept feeding him a steady stream of individually-wrapped crackers from his pockets. _“That must be Sengoku,”_ Sora thought to herself, suddenly remembering Garp mentioning a friend who always had rice crackers on him.

Garp and his friends hung around for the rest of the trip, with Garp paying not only for Niji’s sharks, but the lamp and the other things Sora had picked up for the boys, completely ignoring her protests as he handed his card to the cashier. When she gave them a look, raising an eyebrow, Garp put his arm around her shoulders and gave his biggest smile yet. “She’s my daughter,” he explained to the cashier, lying like it was nothing. “Just moved to the area, wanted to do something nice for her and my grandsons.”

Sora started to say something, when she felt Garp’s female friend reach for her hand to squeeze it lightly. “Don’t waste your breath,” she said, not unkindly. “He does what he wants to do and he doesn’t care what any of us say.”

Figuring Garp’s friends would know better than her, Sora silenced any objections she’d been about to raise and smiled at the cashier, who looked slightly less suspicious than before. Sora’s own father had died when she was young, but it would’ve been roughly the same age difference as the one between her and Garp - or she assumed so, as she wasn’t entirely sure of his age. Perhaps it would be nice to have a sort-of father figure living right next door - it would be nice for the kids to have someone who could be like a grandfather to them, as well. She turned to the boys. “What do you say to your grandfather, for buying you your new toys?”

“Thank you,” Ichiji answered dutifully, remembering one of the key phrases Sora had drilled into him when he’d first learned to talk.

Niji poked his head up from between his sharks, grinning from ear to ear. “Thank you Garpa.” He ducked back down out of sight, giggling to himself.

 _“Garpa,”_ Sora thought to herself, giggling a bit as well. _“It fits.”_ Garp started laughing again, and she could see that he agreed. 

“Do you need help loading the boys up?” Garp asked as they left the register, with Niji thrashing around happily in his shark pile and Ichiji riding on Sengoku’s shoulders. “I’d see Sengoku and Tsuru off first, but I don’t mind helping.”

“Oh - if you want to, of course!” The flush in her cheeks had mostly faded, once the crowd had cleared earlier and Niji had stopped screaming, but it came rushing back as she looked from Garp to his friends, all of whom were regarding her kindly. Ichiji peered out from behind Sengoku’s afro, munching on another tiny fistful of rice crackers, and also gave his mother a smile. “I’m not trying to hijack you, if you’re spending time with your friends -”

Sengoku waved his hand, giving a polite head bow to Sora. “You’re not, not at all. Tsuru and I would love for you to take Garp off our hands, actually…” He reached up and gently grasped Ichiji below his arms, lifting him from where he was sitting and setting him back down on his feet. Sengoku gave her a smile as he turned to head towards the exit. Tsuru gave a similar smile and head bow, and moved to follow Sengoku. “It was very nice meeting you, and your sons. I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of each other.”

“I’ll see them off and I’ll come meet you by the doors!” Garp gave her a thumbs up as he followed his friends out into the parking lot, oblivious to the other customers who turned to gawk at him as he walked right past, several heads taller than almost all of them.

Picking up Sanji and Yonji was a far faster affair than dropping them off had been - gone was the young, red-haired Shanks who’d attempted to flirt with her earlier, replaced by his blue-haired, red-nosed coworker. “Here.” He had all but shoved Sanji and Yonji at her, both of whom ran right to her and hugged her legs. Sanji had traces of magic marker on his face, and Yonji had some smashed-up banana in his hair, but neither of them looked too terribly messy, and both of them were smiling. Sanji held a bright yellow balloon giraffe in one hand, while Yonji held a green balloon dog. “Thanks.”

Sora gave the surly teenager a sweet smile, and watched him blush and jerk his head away. Her ex-husband had been like that...once. She could barely remember it now. “Thank you for watching them...Buggy, right?”

The teen’s blush deepened, and Sora could tell he was surprised she had remembered his name. “Y...yeah,” he mumbled, looking away. “Have a nice day.”

*****

Later that evening, with the kids fed and finally asleep, Sora was halfway finished unpacking the kitchen when her cell phone rang. The brightness of the screen lit up the dim kitchen, burning Sora’s eyes slightly as she stumbled past boxes to pluck it off the counter. She was too tired to read the name before instinctively accepting the call and bringing the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“What the hell were you thinking?” The voice on the other end was rumbling, and furious. Sora’s exhaustion evaporated and she went rigid, standing alone in the kitchen. “You couldn’t even take them to a store without making a scene.”

“They were behaving like children,” Sora tried to hiss, but it came out as a whisper. She wished she’d checked who was calling. Then she could have sent him to voicemail, and then deleted the voicemail without listening. “Children misbehave.”

“Not these children,” he reminded her, his voice cold and stern as though she were one of the children. “Never. You are going to undo all my training -”

“They’re children, not soldiers. Children are allowed to be themselves,” she tried to argue, knowing it would be in vain. How many times had they had this exact argument? He had refused to see reason all the times before, leaving her screaming herself hoarse, tears flowing over red cheeks. “They’re allowed to be silly, be weird, they’re still discovering who they are -”

“I don’t care who they think they _are_.” Her ex’s voice made it clear there was no room for argument, for an opposing view. The first time he’d taken that tone with her, Sora had spent the night wide awake in their bed, curled in a ball as far away from him as she could get. Back then she had felt sorrow, sharp pain and confusion. Now all she felt was anger. “I care about who I need them to be. Do not stand in the way of that.”

Sora felt a hot surge of anger, energizing her from head to toe, and she gripped her phone so tightly she was sure she’d crack it. “You listen to me, Judge Vinsmoke -”

The phone beeped once, and there was no more sound. Sora pulled the phone away, looking at her screen to see - not for the first time - he had hung up on her. He’d hung up on her, and was likely going to enjoy an evening alone, resting his feet, leaving the maintenance of his household to staff and assistants he paid extra to never have to see. People paid to keep the fridge stocked, the house clean, and his children out of sight unless it was time for training. Training and more training. By the time Sora had enough and had made up her mind to leave, that man was no longer recognizable as the man she married. He had gone long ago.

Battling the urge to throw her phone against the wall, to cry and to scream, Sora took a deep breath, and continued to unpack her new home.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a weird kid at the pond...

“Mommy.” Reiju tugged on Sora’s sleeve from beside the park bench. “There’s a weird kid by the edge of the pond.”

Momentarily startled, Sora looked over at the sandbox not even three feet away. She could see Ichiji, Niji, and Sanji, giggling and actively in the process of burying Yonji. That was a normal Sunday now, when they weren’t with their father, spending time at the neighborhood park Garp had told them about. Sora and Reiju would walk, pulling the boys behind them in a wagon, and she’d unload the boys in the sandbox and Reiju would climb all over the playground equipment until they’d all tuckered themselves out for nap time - which, coincidentally, was right when it would start to get just a little too warm outside. “Reiju sweetie, all of your brothers are right here.”

Scrunching her face, Reiju shook her head. “No mommy, a different weird kid.”

Curious, Sora glanced over towards the pond. The playground and sandbox were set up on slightly higher ground, affording her a glance of the pond and its wall of reeds all around the perimeter. She couldn’t see much, outside of cattails and the occasional dragonfly, but after a few moments, she spotted what looked like a white hat peeking through the tall grass. 

Reiju saw it too, and wrinkled her nose. “He’s _weird._ He’s picking up dead stuff and putting it in a bag.”

“Ah...well…” Sora felt compelled to investigate her daughter’s claims, but that would mean leaving the boys alone. She looked over at the sandbox again just in time to see Niji triumphantly upending a bucket of sand right on top of Yonji’s face. Jumping to her feet, she waved her arms at the boys, who seemed startled that their mother was - as always - keeping a close eye on them. “No. No! You know the rules, not the face! He can’t breathe when you do that!”

Yonji sat up, sand pouring off his face as he blinked his eyes repeatedly, squinting a bit as he shook more sand out of his hair. “I’m okay, mommy.”

Sighing, Sora turned to Reiju, who was in full pouting mode, arms crossed over her grey and pink striped shirt. She pointed in the direction of the pond as she took a seat on the edge of the bench, facing the sandbox. “Go tell that boy to go away, mommy, I’ll watch the babies.”

“I’m _not_ a baby.” Ichiji, who had been watching the exchange silently up until that point, furrowed his brow unhappily.

“You _are_ a baby.” Reiju argued back, not above bickering with her toddler brother.

“ _Please_ be nice to your brothers. I will be right back.” Sora headed towards the pond, walking down the gentle slope of grass towards where she’d seen the hat through the reeds. A few dragonflies darted past, diving low towards the surface of the water, and a few fat bumblebees buzzed past as she got closer to the lake. Sora could see the hat again as she got closer, relatively low to the ground - a child, as Reiju had said. The hat was almost too large for the child wearing it, and certainly too warm for the weather with its furry exterior. It didn’t seem to bother the little boy who was wearing it, who was dressed appropriately enough otherwise in khaki shorts and a black and yellow t-shirt. He had a plastic bag in one hand, with THANK YOU printed over and over, and Sora could see what looked like a few dead frogs and toads at the bottom, leaking dirty water through small holes. 

As she drew nearer, the little boy realized he wasn’t alone, and spun around to face her with a wide-eyed look. His eyes were a fascinating shade of yellow, one Sora hadn’t seen before, an interesting contract with his tanned skin. Side-stepping her, he clutched his bag of dead animals to his chest as though it were a priceless treasure. “I didn’t do anything.” 

“Sweetie, where are your parents?” He was collecting the dead animals, not killing them himself - which was weird, to be sure, but not the weirdest thing Sora had seen. She hadn’t seen anyone else at the park that morning, and though the boy was older than any of her own children, Sora didn’t like the thought of just leaving him to his own devices.

“I’m not your ‘sweetie!’” The boy snapped, glaring at her unhappily. “That girl was being nosy. I told her to go away. I’m not doing anything. If I’m gonna be a doctor one day, I gotta practice dissecting stuff. At least I’m using things that are already dead.”

Sora held up both hands, smiling reassuringly at the boy. He seemed unusually on-edge, and his voice was echoing in the empty park. “I didn’t say you did anything, I just asked where your parents were, that’s all. What’s your name?”

“I don’t have to tell you _anything!”_ The boy shot back, even more defensive than before. He squeezed the back even more tightly to his chest, and Sora could hear peculiar squelching from its contents. It was not a pleasant noise, and her smile wavered slightly. “I’m not bothering anyone, I just want -”

From behind, Sora heard panting and running, and then there was a tall man with dark blonde hair with them. “Law!” The man stepped past Sora, towards the little boy. “I’ve been looking all over for -”

Mid-sentence, the man overstepped, and fell face-first into the pond. Sora barely had time to turn away as algae and pond water sprayed into the air, soaking both her and the boy. Lily pads were displaced by the man’s thrashing as he tried to right himself and stand back up, and Sora watched several small fish and tadpoles streaming away as quickly as possible. Beside her, the little boy’s face flashed through several deep shades of red as his features pinched in anger.

“What are you doing??” The anger and embarrassment was clear on the boy’s face as he tried to disappear inside his oversized hat. “I don’t need you to check up on me!”

Grimacing, Sora stepped one foot into the water, leaning forward and stretching her hand out. The man grabbed it and held on tight as he stumbled to his feet. His light-colored jeans were drenched, and fouled with mud from the bottom of the pond. Algae clung to his shaggy hair, dripping down his face as he stepped out of the water and onto the shore. Sora watched, unsure what to make of him, as he pointlessly tried to brush off his pants with equally dirty hands. “Sorry about that, miss...I’m not usually this clumsy.”

“Yes you _are!”_ The boy shouted, fully red-faced and furious.

Ignoring the shouting, the man gave Sora a pleasant smile, extending his hand to hers again. She accepted it, his massive palm engulfing her own, and shook it. “I’m Rosinante, and this is my son, Law. He likes to sneak out and come down here when he thinks my wife and I aren’t paying attention. I hope he wasn’t causing any trouble.”

“Oh, no, I just...I saw him alone and wanted to make sure he was okay.” Sora laughed, still confused a little overwhelmed from everything that had just happened. Already, the pond water that had splashed on her had soaked her shirt and dampened her hair, and the smell was less than fantastic - particularly under the strengthening heat of the sun. “I, ah, I left my kids back up at the sandbox...I should go back and check on them. It’s just about time to load them up to go back home for nap time.”

“Ah, let us help, it’s the least we can do!” The man was unfailingly cheerful, and didn’t seem to be bothered whatsoever by how wet and dirty he was. He patted Law firmly on the shoulder, and received a death glare in return. “Are you new to the neighborhood? I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.”

“We moved in about two and a half weeks ago at this point.” Sora turned to walk back up the hill, with Rosinante and Law right behind her. Her wet shoe was slippery against her feet, and she could feel her soaked sock beginning to bunch up. And she still had the three block walk back to the house with the kids…

“Oh, did you take the house down by Garp’s? I was wondering who’d moved in. It’s always great to get new families in the neighborhood. Law could always use some new friends,” Rosinante chortled as they walked back up the low hill to where the playground and sandbox were. “Right, Law?”

Law said nothing, but out of the corner of her eye, Sora saw him grip his bag tightly again and look away in anger.

Reiju, standing on the bench as they approached, went wide-eyed as she saw her mother returning with two strangers. She climbed down, and pointed right at Rosinante as she backed up towards the sandbox. “You’re all wet!”

“I fell in the pond.”

Reiju put her hands to her mouth and began giggling profusely. 

Unbothered, Rosinante beamed at Sora, as more algae slid slowly down his cheeks. “You have a daughter! That’s great! I’ve got girls - I’m sure they’ll love having a new friend in the neighborhood.”

“This is Reiju,” Sora gestured to her daughter, who gave a tiny curtsy, bowing her head. Turning to the sandbox, Sora added, “And these are my sons, uh…”

Ichiji, Niji, and Sanji were sitting right at the edge of the sandbox, looking up curiously with identical bright blue eyes. All three of them were dusted with a fine layer of sand from head to toe, adhering strongly to the sticky pink patches of dried juice on their faces, hair, and hands. Sora stared at them, brain jamming as she tried to figure out what was wrong with the scene in front of her. “My sons...Ichiji, Niji, Sanji... _where is Yonji?”_

Reiju looked at the sandbox, counted her three remaining brothers, looked up at her mother, and shrugged. “I dunno. He was there a second ago.”

Rosinante’s cheerful expression turned to worry. “Oh no, are we missing one?”

“Reiju, you were SUPPOSED to be WATCHING them!” Sora struggled to bury the exasperation in her voice as she looked around wildly. The playground was empty, and the park pavilions around them were devoid of people. There was no trace of Yonji, and Sora didn’t even have any idea how long he’d even been missing. “Now your brother is missing and -”

Law pointed back towards the pond, towards a cluster of bushes they’d just walked past moments before. “I see legs under those bushes over there,” he muttered, shifting the handles of his plastic bag into his other hand. “Is that him?”

Sora looked over, and right where Law was indicating, she could see two chubby legs, ending in a tiny pair of green sneakers, poking out by the roots, toes-down in the dirt. She’d scarcely spotted the shoes before she took off, almost tripping over her own feet as she flew over the grass, her socks fully sliding down inside her sneakers as she ran. Dropping hard onto her knees, Sora grabbed Yonji around his belly and yanked him back out from under the bushes. “Why aren’t you in the sandboARRHGHGGGH!”

Her angry question ended in a shriek as Yonji turned around in her arms, holding a fat frog only inches from her face. Sora almost dropped Yonji back into the dirt as she held him at arm’s length, trying to keep herself from screaming again. “Yonji! Put that down immediately!”

“Why?” Shifting the unhappy-looking frog into one hand, Yonji patted it gently on the head with his other hand. “Ribbit, ribbit. Hahaha!”

“That’s not a frog.” Law walked up from behind as Sora set Yonji back on his feet, tiny pond creature still gripped firmly in his sticky hands. “That’s a toad. The skin is dry and bumpy. Frogs have wet and smooth skin.” He opened his plastic bag, and began rummaging inside. “I think I have a frog here that I can show you.”

“That’s...not necessary, thank you.” Whatever was in the bag was also beginning to heat up, and it was worse than the pond water. She made her way back up to the playground yet again, urging Yonji on ahead of her (toad friend still in his hands), Law walking beside her as he dug through his bag.

Rosinante was sitting at the edge of the sandbox with Reiju, watching the boys build a sloppy sandcastle, and Sora was relieved to see that nobody else had disappeared. When he saw her, he stood back up, and she could see that he was just as coated in sand as the children were. “You found him! Good thing he didn’t get too far. Kids are craftier than we give them credit for, and they start young.”

Still standing beside Sora, Law let out a small snort and rolled his eyes. 

“The boys were just telling me about how they live in a new house with you now,” Rosinante explained, giving Sora a soft smile. His eyes were gentle too, and Sora was struck by their curious shade of russet. “And they have another house where daddy lives.”

“Ah, yes.” Sora forgot how, the older they got, the more the boys would jabber on if you allowed them. They weren’t always coherent, but they could share quite a bit more than she really wanted them to. “Our divorced was finalized shortly before we moved here.”

“Well...I’m sure it happened for a good reason, going from the look on your face.” Rosinante nodded, and Sora could feel no judgement or condescension from him. “It’s good to get a fresh start, isn’t it? I know all about those.” 

Sora started to open her mouth to ask more, when she felt a tiny tug on her pant leg. She looked down, and saw Sanji clinging to her, oblivious to the smell of the pond water. “Mommy, I’m sleepy.”

Rosinante laughed, and he walked towards the wagon on the side of the sandbox, bringing it over to Sora. He reached inside to smooth out the blanket she’d set down for the boys to sit on, and gave her another friendly smile. “Sorry, I remember you saying something about wanting to get them home for a nap. We can chat more some other time, and you can meet my wife and daughters too - we can get the kids together, maybe they’ll be friends.”

Again, Law snorted, and Sora saw him cross his arms over his chest. “I don’t wanna be friends with _babies.”_

From inside the sandbox, Ichiji sleepily defended himself against the baby accusation for the second time that day. “I’m _not_ a baby,” he protested, laying down and curling up in the sand, pulling his tiny red t-shirt over his head to block the sun.

“That would be great,” Sora agreed. She dug deep into her pockets, and pulled out a broken crayon and a carryout receipt. Resting the paper against her thigh, she carefully put down her cell phone number, and handed it to Rosinante. “That’s my cell phone - we don’t really have a landline. My house is still a mess, but I’m sure we could get the kids together and get coffee or something like that.”

“I’d love that, and I’m sure my wife would too.” Rosinante helped her load up the wagon, easily scooping each of the quadruplets out of the sand and onto the blanket. Each of them only managed to sit up for a few moments before they folded into a dirty, sleepy heap on top of each other. He gave Sora a small wave as he turned to leave, putting his arm around Law, who was looking tired himself. “I’ll give you a call sometime soon - and thanks again for keeping an eye on my son for me.”

“I’m not your son,” Law quietly muttered as they walked away. Sora pretended she hadn’t noticed.


	5. Chapter 4

“Well damn, looks like Roci wasn’t kidding when he said you have a whole litter of kids.” The tall woman leaning in the doorway, standing over a well-worn Halloween mat (it was almost summer, now) had a haircut the likes of which Sora had never seen before - a mohawk, maybe, but longer, and in a striking shade of fuchsia. Her sides were buzzed, with parted bangs at the center of her forehead, and Sora felt slightly embarrassed for staring. It wasn’t a look she would’ve described as pretty on its own - but it certainly looked as much so on her. Sora thought it fit well with her fitted jeans and flannel shirt. 

“A litter is certainly one way to describe them,” Sora admitted, laughing nervously. She wasn’t fond of leashes, believing that they belonged on pets and not children, but all four of the boys were wearing small harnesses over their shirts with leashes that wrapped firmly around her wrists. Sanji and Yonji had accepted their restraints after being bribed with packets of gummi snacks, but Ichiji and Niji were a different story - Ichiji had only  _ just _ stopped crying just before Sora knocked on the door, and Niji had been ceaselessly gnawing on the top harness strap that went over his chest and under his arms. Reiju was huddled behind Sora, gripping her legs tightly as she looked at the stranger in the doorway. “It’s a lot like having puppies...I’m sure.”

The woman let out a loud cackle of a laugh as she stepped forward and shook Sora’s hand firmly. Her hand was well-calloused and dwarfed Sora’s hand easily. “Can’t argue with you on that. With kids and puppies, silence is always dangerous, you find yourself yelling a lot, and - somehow - there’s  _ always _ shit where there shouldn’t be shit.” She laughed again and, out of the corner of her eye, Sora could see Reiju covering her ears at the swear word. “It’s great to meet you. I’m Bell-mère - Roci’s wife.”

“I’m Sora - wonderful to meet you as well.” Sora smiled, and tapped her kids on the head in turn. “This is Reiju, Ichiji, Niji, Sanji, and Yonji.”

Bell-mère’s grey eyes went wide as she looked at the boys, hands firmly on her hips. “Wow,  _ four _ boys? Roci and I have our hands full with three girls...I think even  _ I _ might struggle with four boys.”

Inside the house, there was a loud bang, followed by yelling.

“Ah, jeez. Speaking of having my hands full...come on in, I should probably go find out what the hell that was.” She headed back in the door and Sora followed close behind, stumbling slightly as the boys tried to wrap around her legs in confusion. Stopping briefly to wipe her feet on the face of a sun-faded jack-o-lantern, she stepped over the mat and into the house. 

The inside foyer of the house looked much like Sora’s own, but with a massive pile of children’s shoes behind the door. At the bottom of the stairs leading to the second floor, there was a mountain of laundry, all glittery, girly shades of pink, purple, and yellow. The eggshell-colored walls had been scribbled on with every color of crayon imaginable. There were happy yellow suns, complete with sunglasses and smiley faces, schools of fish in reds and silvers, and little stick figures with yellow and orange hair. One section of wall looked freshly painted over as Sora passed by, and she could make out faintly the design underneath - what looked to be a circular, grinning face, with a line slashed through it. It was plain black crayon, with no embellishment, Sora could see edges of paint coat after paint coat that had been slapped over top.

“Ah, don’t mind that...kids are always drawing on the walls. I’m sure you know.” The hallway opened up into a large kitchen that was no less clutter than the foyer had been. Sora could make out what looked like a refrigerator under layers and layers of artwork with more crayon scribbles, with the occasional photo slapped on top. She recognized Rosinante and Bell-mère in a few, raising drinks to the camera, but the vast majority of the photos were of small children - Law, unmistakable with his hat, and then the three girls Bell-mère had mentioned - one looked to be about Reiju’s age, with black hair and a big smile. Another looked slightly older than the boys, with light brown hair, holding a toddler with ginger locks.

“AH, for the love of...what the hell happened?!” Bell-mère stopped short right in front of Sora, who caught herself before crashing. Reiju stopped too, holding onto her mother’s hand, but the boys were not as lucky or coordinated, and swiftly fell down like dominoes. She was looking right up at the ceiling, and Sora followed her lead. Above the kitchen island, loaded with bags of groceries waiting to be put away, there was a pot rack that had completely broken away from the ceiling on one side and was now dangling precariously, swaying in place. Several heavy pots, pans, and skillets had fallen free onto the floor, and Sora could see a pair of man’s length sticking out from under the pile. One leg was askew, with the foot squarely in a dog’s water bowl.

Groaning, Rosinante sat up, pushing a soup pot off of his head as he rubbed at his jaw. There were bruises already blooming, along his forehead and on his cheeks, and he looked to have a black eye from one of the long handles. Brushing his blonde hair from his eyes, he staggered to his feet. “You’ve been mentioning you thought it was coming loose. I wanted to check, before getting the tools out to fix it, so I gave it a tug, and…”

Behind her, Sora heard Reiju giggle.

Rosinante glanced at Sora, and then a smile spread across his face. She could see his teeth were bloody from being hit in the mouth. “Sora! I’m glad you came! And you brought the kids!”

“You knew we had guests coming and you  _ still _ decided to pull a stunt like this.” Letting out a groan of her own, Bell-mère bent down to pick up the water bowl - with ‘Chouchou’ written on it in silver marker - and brought it to the sink, both sides of which were overflowing with dishes. “I wish you’d use your damn brain sometimes.”

Squatting down, Rosinante smiled and waved at the boys - and all but Yonji pulled away at the sight of his bloody mouth. “Hey kids, do you remember me?”

Reiju pointed at his face, her eyes wide. “You’re bleeding.”

“That happens a lot,” Bell-mère assured Reiju as she set the water bowl back on the floor.

Ichiji and Niji did not answer, turning away to bury their faces into Sora’s legs, digging their tiny fingers into the fabric of her pants. Smiling back nervously, Sanji gave a polite wave as he walked backwards into his mother. “Hi mister.”

Yonji, still sitting on the floor where he’d fallen earlier, stared at Rosinante impassively, looking back and forth between him and his mother. He waved as well, but otherwise did not seem terribly interested in what was going on. Sora could see his chubby hands grabbing at things on the floor, and then she noticed his jaw moving.

“Sweetie? Do you have something in your mouth?”

Yonji looked nervously up at his mother before quickly putting his head down, chewing faster.

“Hey! No. I don’t think so.” Sora quickly dropped to one knee, catching Yonji in the crook of her arm before he could try to waddle away (while still firmly leashed to her wrist). Ichiji and Niji fell sideways onto the floor again from her sudden movement as she tried to pry Yonji’s mouth open. She could feel his tiny jaw muscles moving at a furious pace under her fingers. “Spit it out right now. Spit it out.”

Coming from behind Sora, a barefoot little girl in a navy blue dress ran into the kitchen, long black hair streaming out behind her. She had barely passed Reiju, who looked surprised at her sudden appearance, when she came to a screeching halt. Bouncing in place, she clapped her hands in excitement as glittery bracelets jangled on her wrists. “They’re here!” Still squealing with excitement, she grabbed Reiju by her hands, pulling her close and spinning her in a circle. Sora could see the bewilderment in her daughter’s face.

“Ah, uh, yes?” Sora agreed, confused. She looked over at Bell-mère and Rosinante, both of whom were chuckling.

“She’s been so excited ever since we told her about Reiju,” Bell-mère explained, jerking open a jammed pantry door and taking out a massive box of gummi fruit snacks. She pulled out a fistful of them, setting them on the counter beside a shoebox overflowing with unopened mail. “There aren’t any other little girls her age in the neighborhood. Do your kids like fruit snacks?”

“They  _ love _ them.”

Whatever shyness Ichiji and Niji had before quickly left, both of them stretching their leashes taut as they made a beeline for Bell-mère, eyes wide and hands held up. Sanji followed quickly behind, squeezing in between them with an equally excited expression. Spitting out a half-chewed piece of dog food into Sora’s hand, Yonji broke free and joined his brother. Laughing, Bell-mère handed them each their own packet, and they quickly dropped on the floor to tear them open with their teeth. “Baby, sweetheart, can you go get your sisters?”

“I’m here.” Yawning, a small girl with light brown hair walked in, pulling a plastic laundry basket on the floor behind her. She was wearing the same dress as Reiju, but in light blue instead of pink. Inside the basket, sitting back with several stuffed animals and plush blankets, was another little girl in orange overalls with a green headband holding back bright, gingery red hair. She looked just a pinch younger than the boys, with a round face and bright brown eyes.

_ “Ah, and that’s all three girls,” _ Sora thought to herself, smiling sweetly at them as they joined their older sister in the middle of the kitchen. No sign of Law yet, though - but Sora had a feeling that in the midst of the chaos was not where he would want to be.

Bell-mère grabbed Baby over the top of her head, stopping her spinning instantly and setting Reiju free. Reiju started to topple over and Bell-mère quickly caught her. “Here you go, girls.” She handed Baby and Reiju each their own fruit snacks. “Baby, why don’t you show Reiju your Butterfly Princess dolls?

“You have Butterfly Princess dolls??” Sora knew Bell-mère had said the magic words as Reiju’s dizziness left her face, replaced with an expression of eager excitement as she too began to bounce in place. 

“I have  _ all _ of them,” Baby bragged, running right past Sora again and this time, with Reiju hot on her heels. “I can show you! And then I can show you my gross brother.” Her voice increased to a yell as Sora heard them starting up the stairs. “HE’S PROBABLY CUTTING UP FROGS LIKE A WEIRDO.”

Somewhere upstairs, Sora heard Law yell back. “LEAVE ME ALONE.”

Rosinante sighed, he was still smiling. “I’m going to go check in on Law...just to make sure he isn’t dissecting anything in his room.” His smile slipped somewhat as he headed past Sora, shuddering. “That smell is never going to come out of the carpet…”

“Can I have gummies too, Bell-mère?” The brown-haired girl asked, pushing her little sister in her basket over to where the boys were sitting. Sora watched as one by one, all four of them looked up, eyes wide and mouths hanging open with half-chewed gummies falling down the front of their shirts. It took everything Sora had to keep from bursting out laughing as they all scrambled to pour their remaining gummies into their palms, stretching out eagerly towards the little girl, who gave them a confused look.

Yonji didn’t mince words as he pushed the rest of his snack insistently towards her, flashing a wide smile “Pretty.”

“Here you go, Nojiko.” Bell-mère handed one last packet to the little girl with a wink, reaching down to pat Yonji on top of the head. “Honey, you go ahead and finish yours - but that was very sweet of you.” 

Yonji shoved the rest of the gummies into his mouth at once as he sat back down, joining in with his brothers as they continued to smile and stare at Nojiko, who gave them a strange look in return. Bell-mère leaned down to pull the other little girl out of the basket, adjusting her tiny headband before bringing her to her chest. 

“Let’s find something else for you, my little tangerine girl.” Bell-mère gave her a kiss on the forehead. Grinning at Sora, she opened the pantry again. “You want anything? Roci and I have probably every single snack you can think of. Except for that low-sodium, reduced-fat diet shit. We’re here for a good time, not a long time.”

“Nothing for me, I’m fine.” Sora quickly took advantage of the boys being distracted, sneaking up behind them and unhooking their leashes one by one. Keeping them in the harnesses and re-clipping the leashes later would be much easier than trying to wrestle them into the entire thing again - she had no desire to relive that experience twice in one day. “I saw you were painting your hallway.”

Bell-mère pulled a large bag of beef jerky out of the pantry before closing it again, dropping into an empty chair at a kitchen table filled with large tubs of arts and crafts supplies. She gestured to an empty chair with brightly colored hoodies hung over the back, and Sora joined her. “Ah, just patches...kinda pointless to repaint the whole thing if the kids are gonna draw on it again, you know?”

Sora felt like just painting in patches when the kids would just draw over it again was what seemed pointless, but she didn’t want to start a fight. She thought back to the design she’d seen through the new paint layer - that grinning face with a slash through it. That had been the only drawing she’d noticed painted directly over.

Tearing off a tiny piece of jerky, Bell-mère prodded at her daughter’s lips with it until she opened wide. “Come on now, Nami, we both know you love jerky.”

“Do you ever purposely paint over something the kids have drawn?” Sora asked suddenly, not able to stop herself from prodding slightly. It was just so peculiar - every other drawing, big or small, had been left alone - but that  _ one _ part had been painted over repeatedly already. Something didn’t seem quite right.

Bell-mère gave her a knowing glance, her eyebrows shooting straight up. “I take it you saw what we’re trying to paint over.”

“It seemed innocuous,” Sora admitted, feeling her face flushing hot. It hadn’t been her place to be nosy, and she immediately felt bad asking. “I just didn’t know if it had any significance or not, it seems like a simple enough design…”

Sighing, Bell-mère shrugged, lowering her eyes as she frowned. “Yeah, it’s simple looking, isn’t it? It’s easy for a kid to remember and draw over and over. That’s been a real problem here. Baby can’t stop drawing it, and it upsets Law every time he sees it.”

“What...is it?” Sora asked timidly, feeling as though it was a little late to drop the subject now. Bell-mère didn’t seem angry at her asking - just worried - and Sora could see her knee beginning to bounce up and down as she gnawed at her jerky.

“It’s from Roci’s brother,” Bell-mère answered, her tone exhausted. She leaned back in the chair, holding Nami tightly to her chest as her eyes wandered up towards the ceiling. Her expression was clouded and unreadable, and Sora felt even worse for having brought it up in the first place. “He's balls-deep in some...serious shit. Not my place to talk about, really...but he takes it in stride better than I do. I’m sure he can explain when he comes downstairs.”

_ “It upsets Law every time he sees it,” _ Sora thought to herself. She felt an uncomfortable tightness in her gut as she too looked up towards the ceiling. It had been a small, silly enough design - a harmless, toothy grin. What could it possibly upset Law so much that both Bell-mère and Roci felt compelled to keep covering it up?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- I changed Nojiko's hair but I figured Bell-mere could have the brightly colored hair she's supposed to have since she could have dyed it or something  
> \- Don't give me shit for pairing Rosinante with Bell-mere, I have *~plans~*


	6. Chapter 5

Sora lay awake in bed, staring up at the ceiling. The playdate with Roci and Bell-mère’s children had been days ago, and she was still thinking about the conversation they’d had while the kids had kept each other busy, chasing Chouchou the dog in the backyard.  _ “I guess it’s a relief, in a horrible sort of way,” _ Sora thought to herself, cuddling her arms around Sanji on one side and Niji on the other. Neither of them had been sleeping through the night as of late, and had crawled into bed one after the other.  _ “I knew our family had problems but…” _

The glow of the street lamps shone dimly through the windows, catching on the glass of the ceiling fan lights. Sora watched as the ceiling fan blades spun around and around, the whooshing of the air offering up an almost comforting white noise. On occasion, she heard a car passing by, or the barking of a dog in the distance - but the neighbor outside her bedroom windows was calm and sleepy. The perfect atmosphere to get lost in her thoughts.

******

When Roci had joined her and Bell-mère at the table, he didn’t seem too terribly surprised by the topic at hand. “I’m surprised you waited so long to ask,” Roci commented, accepting a tiny piece of jerky that Nami offered with a tiny chubby hand. “I figured you had to have overheard Law’s comment at the park.”

_ “I’m not your son,” _ Law had said quietly. Sora had remembered, and had made sure not to bring it up.

Roci noticed the flare of red across her face, and his kind eyes crinkled in a smile. “Oh, it’s alright - trust me, it’s not the first time Law’s just...said something like that. It is technically the truth.”

“I - yes, I heard him, I just didn’t feel right -”

Bell-mère let out a laugh as she held up another piece of jerky for Nami to chew on, ignoring the drool trickling down her wrist. “Don’t feel embarrassed, it’s alright.”

“We’re technically Law’s foster parents,” Roci explained, aiming to bite into the jerky he held and overshooting, biting his fingers. Eyes watering in pain, he spoke through a grimace. “He lost both of his parents, and his little sister as well. It was a horrible tragedy.”

Sora doubted that the pain she was hearing in Roci’s voice was solely from having bitten himself. He looked away for a moment, tilting his head up as though he could see Law through the ceiling. Bell-mère continued quietly feeding Nami, leaning in to plant a kiss on the top of her fuzzy ginger head. Sora could see that her eyes looked misty as well.

“Was he placed with the two of you afterwards?” Sora asked as nicely as she could, but the tension in her stomach told her it was a stupid question. If it had been as simple as that, either Roci or Bell-mère would’ve said so. 

Roci made a strange sound, and Sora watched his lips thin as he pressed them into a tight line. He shared a look with Bell-mère before turning back to Sora and shaking his head. “No, unfortunately. The system lost track of him...and he ended up with my older brother.”

_ “Thank goodness for that,” _ Sora thought, letting out a sigh of relief and closing her eyes. She didn’t know much about the situation, but with how sweet Roci was, she could imagine what his older brother was like. Sora couldn’t imagine if something happened to her and Reiju and the boys ended up in the system. It was almost worse than her ex-husband ending up with sole custody - and that had been one of Sora’s worst fears from the moment she’d filed for divorce. The very thought made her shiver. 

When she opened her eyes, she saw Roci was smiling again, though it didn’t seem to reach his bright, shiny eyes. “I thank god every day that Law ended up with my brother...I never would have ended up with such an incredible son otherwise. We actually ended up taking in both Baby and Law from Doffy - sorry, that’s my brother,” Roci explained, voice sounding momentarily strained after blurting out his name. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Bell-mère flinch as she slipped a cigarette between her lips. “Baby had a better relationship with him than Law did. That, uh...drawing you saw on the wall? It’s like his personal insignia. We know it bothers Law so we try to paint over it. Our family therapist said it’s easier to just do that while we try to work with the kids.”

“We don’t have a therapist because we’re crazy or anything,” Bell-mère interjected quickly, brandishing her cigarette and trailing ash over a giant tub of broken crayons and the top of Nami’s head. “Roci insisted, he said it would be good to get professional help with the kids.”

“She didn’t say we were crazy,” Roci assured Bell-mère, reaching a hand out to dust the ashes off Nami’s head. She let out a happy baby giggle and grabbed his hand, gnawing on one of the fingers. “You volunteering stuff like that is why people think we’re crazy.”

The kids had all come exploding back into the kitchen all at once after that - the boys and Nojiko, covered in mud (and god only knew what else) from having chased Chouchou all around the yard. Chouchou was no better, his white fur so dirty it was black, and he trailed paw prints all over the kitchen while the children continued chasing him. Baby and Reiju came downstairs shortly afterwards, dressed up in bright pink and purple princess dresses over their regular clothes, both of them holding tightly to Law, who looked as though he would’ve rather been anywhere else but there.

They all seemed happy, even as Bell-mère jumped to her feet, Nami on her hip, to shoo the dirty kids outside to wipe off their feet (and to  _ please _ rinse off Chouchou with the hose), but Sora stole a glance at Law as he stood in the doorway, motionless as Reiju and Baby frog-hopped in time with one another, holding onto his arms. His gaze seemed vacant, distant - as if he really was somewhere else, rather than in the cozy and packed kitchen with people who loved and cared about him.

_ “Losing both of his parents and his sister…” _ Sora thought to herself as she took a piece of jerky out of the bag that Bell-mère had abandoned on the cluttered table. She couldn’t imagine anything more horrifying than that.

******

Sora jumped slightly where she lay, almost waking both Niji and Sanji as she heard a loud bang from outside. From outside the window, she could see a bright flood light switching on, followed by the slam of a door.

“Helping yourself to MY garbage?” Garp’s voice, which somehow boomed even louder than usual in the silence of the sleepy night, carried itself right up through the window and into Sora’s ears. “Alright then, have it your way - this isn’t my first raccoon rodeo.”

Several loud grunts followed, accompanied by the sound of fists making contact with an angry-sounding animal. Sora sighed, grabbing one of her pillows and pulling it over her face, temporarily catching her fingers on a tangled snarl of her hair. Even through the heavy pillow, she could clearly hear Garp demanding the raccoon fight him like a real man and asking if that was the best he’s got.

Despite all the noise, Sora heard the creak of her bedroom door as it was pushed open, and she looked over to see a very tired Reiju, with blonde hair just as tangled as her own. Her blue eyes were half closed, and she was stumbling towards the bed. “Garpa is being really loud again mommy. The raccoons are back.”

Groaning internally, Sora held Sanji and Niji close to her as she scooted over to make room for Reiju to climb into the bed. Once tucked in with her mother and brothers, Reiju immediately rolled over to try and cuddle Sora, squashing Niji between the two of them. Sora listened to the chorus of tiny, even breaths for a moment before realizing that Reiju was still awake.

“I don’t wanna go to daddy’s tomorrow.”

“I know you don’t, sweetie,” Sora murmured, barely audible over more shouting from Garp, reaching a hand to brush a long lock of blonde hair out of Reiju’s worried face. “But your daddy loves you and your brothers and he has every right to have you come see him.”

“Does daddy  _ really _ love us?” Reiju asked, voice sounding strange. It was almost a peculiar apprehension - as if she were nervous to ask the question at all. That struck Sora as odd, even laying half-awake in bed. Reiju was never too nervous to ask her mother anything - from questions such as ‘why is the sky blue?’ to ‘why couldn’t you fit back in your normal pants after the babies were born?’ It was a blessing and a curse.

“Of  _ course _ your father loves you.” Sora would’ve made such a statement with no doubt in her voice at all, just a few years earlier, but now - it sounded less confident. And the lack of concrete assurance did not go unnoticed by Reiju.

Reiju gazed at her mother steadily, her blue eyes bright and unblinking. Sora felt nervous, looking back at her daughter. They had been in the agreed-upon custody arrangement for awhile now, and for what it was worth, it seemed to be working out...more or less. To her relief, she had seen neither hide nor hair of her ex-husband, nor had she received any more phone calls like the night of the Ikea debacle. He sent a nanny to pick the children up, and the same nanny was responsible for dropping them back off. They never had bruises or cuts, and they all looked clean and well-fed. Sora’s only real complaint had been regarding their wardrobes.

_ “He can’t just be dressing them in shirts with numbers on them,” _ Sora had angrily scolded the nanny at the most recent drop-off. It had been a recurring complaint; one her ex had seen fit to continuously ignore.  _ “They’re more than numbers. It needs to stop. Tell him that.” _

Whether the nanny had relayed the message or not, the outfits had not gone away - Sora had thrown away more red ‘1’ shirts, pink ‘0’ shirts, and all the others than she could possibly keep track of.

“When I’m a grown-up, do I have to keep seeing daddy?”

“When you’re a grown-up, you make your own decisions,” Sora explained gently to Reiju, noticing flashing red and blue lights outside the window. It seemed a less-patient neighbor had called the police on Garp. Again. “Is daddy mean to you, sweetie?”

Outside, she could hear talking.

“Alright Garp, pack it in -”

“Yosaku, you and Johnny better get your asses back in that squad car if you don’t wanna end up like these raccoons.” Even from relatively far away, the threatening crack of knuckles was unmistakable.

“Yes sir, hate to bother you - have a good night.”

“Not me, mommy,” Reiju quietly confided, lifting her head just the tiniest bit to look over Sora. Confused, Sora turned, and saw only Sanji - still sleeping peacefully, blonde hair lightly fanned out on the pillow. “Sanji. Daddy is mean to Sanji.”

Sora felt as though ice water had been poured over her, and the arm that was around Sanji pulled him close to her. He had never said a word about his father mistreating him - not once after any visits. Sanji had always been as cheerful and happy as ever, coming to her only with hugs and smiles. “Are you sure, Reiju.”

“I’m sure, mommy,” Reiju asserted. She blinked, and her eyes filled with tears. “Mommy, please don’t send us back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> \- Don't worry, we're not done with Roci & Family  
> \- I hope Yosaku and Johnny will forgive me for making them cops  
> \- I am so sorry at how long this new chapter has taken it will never happen again (maybe)


End file.
